Over the last 18 months or so, I'm sure you'll agree that it's not a great time to be Kanye West, but it's arguably an even worse time to be a fan of Kanye West.
Sure, if you've been with Kanye ever since his infamous claim that "George Bush doesn't care about black people", you're well aware that while the rapper is prone to his outbursts every now and again, you had Gold Digger, Stronger or Runaway to enjoy as a consequence, so it wasn't so bad.
But ever since Kanye knocked it out of the park with 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, he's not even come close to backing up his obvious crazy with his sometimes underdeveloped talent. Yeezus, The Life of Pablo and now Ye have all been released to some degree of epic fanfare, but to be honest, none of them have been that good.
Fans and friends might have stuck by him, but then he had to go and put on the red hat, and since then, a lot of people have stepped away from Kanye. Not least his famous friends; John Legend was just one high-profile example of celebrities distancing themselves from Kanye, and now, rapper TI is getting in on the act.
TI had done his best to continue to support Kanye, even as he started to do some really weird things. Sitting down with the Breakfast Club in May to discuss his friend, TI said that he couldn't just shun West. "We, as the black delegation, cannot afford to lose Kanye West," TI said. "He is our Michael Jackson."
Very sweet, yes, but that was five months ago, and since then, a lot's changed. This week, Kanye went even further in his outspoken and controversial support of Donald Trump by having a publicised lunch with the president, where amongst other things, he tried to pitch a new idea for a presidential plane. It was a wild ride of a meeting.
For TI, it was also the straw that broke the camel's back. Posting to Instagram after West's meeting with Trump made the news over the last week, TI said in no uncertain terms that he can't continue to support West after... whatever that was happened.
"I’ve been extremely patient and made it a point to not jump to any premature conclusions about Ye' [and] his antics," TI wrote on the 'Gram, making it clear that he was about to go off on his friend. "But now this s**t is next level, futuristic Sambo, Hopping Bob, Stephen off Django [Unchained] ass s**t."
"You ass kissing and boot licking on a whole new level & I refuse to associate myself with something so vile, weak, [and] inconsiderate to the effect this has on the greater good of ALL OUR PEOPLE[...] At one time it was a pleasure to work alongside you... now, I’m ashamed to have ever been associated with you."
Ouch. As upset and angry as TI comes across here, I'm not sure it'll affect Kanye too much - he's come in for widespread criticism following his adornment of the Make America Great Again hat that's become a totem for Trump's entire presidency, but revealed in that meeting that it made him "feel like Superman".
If that's the case, I wonder what Kanye's kryptonite will turn out to be.
